Baidu told KrAsia on Monday that its mini programmes supported through its apps now have exceeded 150 million monthly active users.
This should allow the tech giant to better monetize its huge search traffic and a chance at catching up with the other two Chinese tech giants it forms the so-called BAT companies with, Alibaba and Tencent. Baidu had somewhat fallen behind its two big peers.
Data shows that by March 2018, monthly active users of WeChat’s mini programmes reached more than 400 million. The Tencent-owned messaging app had rolled out this feature in 2017Â which lets users interact with some functions of other apps without leaving the WeChat environment.
Baidu was late to the game, launching its mini programmes mid last year. By September, it said to have 100 million active users on those mini programmes.